The government has raised the base salary for cultural workers — Mykolaiv is looking for money in the budget to pay the increases

Jazz at sunset in Mykolaiv, June 2024, photo by NikVesti

The government has raised the base salary for cultural workers to 3,470 hryvnias. The Mykolaiv authorities say they will seek funds in the budget to pay bonuses.

This is evidenced by letters from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Economy in response to an appeal from the Mykolaiv City Council, which are available to the editorial office of NikVesti.

As is known, in December, city council deputies appealed to the government and parliament with a demand to increase the salaries of cultural workers. They noted that in 2025, the minimum wage was 8,000 hryvnias, but the salaries of many cultural workers remain below this level.

In their responses, both ministries acknowledge that the salaries of cultural workers remain low and uncompetitive. However, they explain that the possibility of increasing salaries is limited due to martial law and the priority given to defence spending.

At the same time, from 1 January 2026, the official salary of a worker in the first tariff grade was increased by 8.6% to 3,470 hryvnias.

The first tariff grade is the base grade in the Unified Tariff Grid. All other grades are calculated based on it using coefficients. This means that if the first tariff grade is raised, the salaries of all other grades automatically increase.

«They raised the first tariff grade slightly in the law on the state budget. We plan to pay everything that is provided for by law. And if our budget revenues grow, we can consider possible additional payments,» said Anatolii Petrov, deputy mayor for social and humanitarian issues, in a comment to NikVesti.

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At the same time, he added, the salaries of music school teachers have been increased by 40%.

«At the end of December, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution to increase the salaries of music school teachers by 40% and on 1 September by 20%. We are currently working on the revenue side of the budget and, in principle, will pay the salary increase accordingly. But we are only talking about teaching staff. We asked for an increase for all cultural workers, in accordance with tariff rates, but at the moment only the salaries of music school teachers are being increased,» he explained.

In its response, the Ministry of Culture acknowledges that, despite the allowances, the level of remuneration in the cultural sector «remains uncompetitive».

They reported that they had previously approached the Ministry of Economy with a proposal to set the first tariff grade at the level of the minimum wage or to review the entire tariff grid. However, according to the Ministry of Finance, such a decision would require «significant budget expenditures in the context of martial law».

The Ministry of Economy added in its response that the increase also does not solve the problem of «equalisation» — when the difference between the wages of employees in pay grades 1–14 is minimal.

«Raising the official salary of an employee in pay grade 1 of the Unified Tariff Scale to 3,470 hryvnias in 2026 does not really solve the problem of the existing «equalisation» in the wages of unskilled, skilled and highly skilled workers, which is observed in pay grades 1 to 14 of the Unified Tariff Scale,» they explained.

Thus, raising the first tariff grade to 3,470 hryvnias is currently the main systemic change in the formation of salaries in 2026.

Instead, according to Deputy Mayor Anatolii Petrov, the Mykolaiv budget will seek funds for additional payments to cultural workers.

«We plan to work on this issue in accordance with the revenue side of our budget for 2026. But everything will depend on income,» he added.

We will remind you that members of the city council's budget committee recommended adjusting budget limits to cover the deficit in funds for paying salaries to cultural and education workers in Mykolaiv. Yurii Liubarov, head of the city council's culture department, said that the sector currently lacks more than 5 million hryvnias to pay salaries. According to him, the problem can be temporarily solved by redistributing budget limits from the months of the second half of the year.